


Don't Talk Just Kiss

by Dormammu



Category: Avengers Academy (Video Game), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Angry Kissing, Angry Steve Rogers, Angry Tony Stark, Dorks in Love, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-10
Updated: 2018-02-10
Packaged: 2019-03-16 12:18:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13636149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dormammu/pseuds/Dormammu
Summary: Steve and Tony are at Club A, each thinking about their never realized friendship and crush on the other and that the other hates him.





	Don't Talk Just Kiss

   Tony was drinking his coffee at the bar of Club A. Jarvis had turned off his coffee machines, citing "The sight of each machine makes young sir want the coffee even more, and that results in sir's overdose on caffeine and erratic behaviour that is bad for sir's health." So Club A and the coffee cart (when Tony remembered it existed) were his only choices for the time being.

But Tony's thoughts were not occupied by coffee, impossible with the loud laughs coming from a table nearby.

Cap was sitting to the right of Tony, at one of the tables, surrounded by his friends, Falcon, Black Widow, Peggy Carter, and they were talking animatedly, and laughing, and Tony was definitely not spying on them. It wasn't spying if the guy you're spying on was visible to you if you inclined your head just so.

This was not the first time Tony was present while Cap was having a good time with his friends. And every time, Tony felt a strange, achy feeling roundabouts his chest.

Tony had friends of his own, he had Jan and Rhodey, and a bunch of other people he could talk to and laugh with. So it wasn't as if he was jealous of Cap's or his friends' outgoing personalities. How could he have been jealous of something like that? When he, Tony Stark, had the most outgoing personality in the galaxy!

But he'd never felt this way seeing other small groups of people having fun. It was always Cap's group that inevitably gave him this chest-constricting feeling of loss and sadness even.

He thought about it some more. Casually.

The coffee was okay at Club A, so his coffee machines weren't really on his mind. Except for the thought that Jarvis was possibly right about Tony being addicted to them, because here he was, trying to make a breakthrough in his thoughts about Cap, maybe even some hidden feelings, and still, the coffee machines were creeping into his mind.

Another loud bout of laughter jolted Tony out of his incipient fight with himself. He'd throw out the machines that evening for sure.

He looked at the Cap's table. Cap was just laughing at something that had been said, and then he looked at Tony, noticed him looking back, and kind of stopped laughing, instead of the radiant smile, he was now sporting a fake one, as if he didn't want his friends to notice that Tony had made him unhappy just by looking at him.

Tony felt bad. Cap obviously had something against him. He'd wanted to ask Cap so many times why it was that he always tried to make Tony feel bad about his everything, from work habits to the choice of outfits. But he'd always chickened out. And he knew why. Because whatever Cap's reasoning, it was probably spot on. Cap just knew that stuff, and he'd tell Tony just what he was doing wrong and he'd be right.

Which was probably one of the reasons he and Cap never became friends. Not in any real way. Tony and Cap had never sat together at a table or on benches, or anywhere else, just laughing and talking. And Tony realized, sitting there at the bar and looking into his almost empty coffee cup, that he wanted to. And his chest ached even more. He really should listen to Jarvis and let go of coffee for a few weeks.

He decided to leave. There were, after all, things he had to work on, gadgets and small robots, all of that.

As he was getting up, Tony felt like crying. He decided that was stupid, extremely stupid for someone with as outgoing personality as his was. So he grinned, got off the stool, and when he was at the door, turned to look at Cap as if to say "Don't worry, I'm leaving you to your fun."

Cap was at that moment looking at Falcon, who was telling the company gathered a story of his adventure. When Tony looked at him, he looked back, Tony waved. Steve's face was neutral. Then he looked down.

 

When Tony was outside, he breathed deeply. He'd think about his very complex feelings and emotions for his coffee machines and also Steve Rogers, after an intense working session in his lab.

He was by the Avengers Hall when he heard quickly approaching footsteps. And then a voice calling after him.

"Iron Man, wait!"

It was Cap's voice.

Tony's first thought was that Cap had come to berate him for something. Which is why, as he turned to ask what Cap wanted, he again put on a smile. Sticks and stones and all that.

 

 

 

   Steve was among his friends, they were chatting and laughing, competing in who had a better adventure to retell. The atmosphere was great, and he was happy. At least that's what he'd say to either of his three friends if they asked, because at the moment his mind was far away from their stories.

He'd spotted Iron Man at the bar sometime between Falcon't first story and Peggy's second. Iron Man was nursing his coffee and chatting with the robot bartender. Always so friendly with everyone, Steve thought, not thinking, except for me, because that'd be a little petulant.

Over the past few months Steve'd been coming to terms with his crush on Tony. And even more painfully, with his chronic inability do to something about it. When he'd realized he was possibly never going to do something about it, he'd tried to at the very least befriend Tony. But that always went wrong and someone's feelings always got hurt.

Why was it so hard?

"And then," Widow said in her matter of fact voice, "I dosed Scientist Supreme with a slow-acting toxic gas. He cried as he told me everything I wanted to know."

Everyone gasped.

"Wait till you hear my story," Peggy said in a proud voice. "About a Swiss dignitary who turned out to be a Hydra spy and how I got the nickname Bone Breaker. So, picture it's 1948..."

Steve listened to Peggy's story, and alternately watched Tony and thought about calling him over. Tony seemed lost in his thoughts, probably thinking about an amazing new invention. Steve suddenly felt a very familiar feeling of shame. He was not a genius, his intelligence was average, it was probably for the best that he and Tony'd never become friends, he'd have bored Tony with his stupidity. His thoughts had brought him to this conclusion many times before. It was the primary reason Steve never pursued a friendship with Tony as boldly as he would've with any other student. Because disappointing Tony as a friend would've hurt even more than not even trying and pining from afar instead.

A sudden laughter erupted from his friends. Peggy had finished her story, Steve joined in the laughter hoping it didn't sound too fake.

Then he noticed that Tony'd turned to look at him. He stopped laughing. He'd probably overdone it anyway. He suddenly felt so stupid under Tony's gaze. So unhappy about his own cowardice in this one crucial matter. He donned a fake smile, because his friends had no idea about his internal turmoil, and for the best.

Tony turned back to his coffee. Then, after a moment or two, he got off his stool. So he was leaving. Had Steve done something? Was his laugh just so annoying?

But Falcon had started his own story, and Steve looked at him as if listening. He felt like a lousy friend all the while, and a lousy potential friend.

When Tony was at the exit, he looked at Steve. His smile was so beautiful, but why was he smiling at Steve? Steve looked back, not really sure how to react. Tony waved. Steve looked at his coffee cup so that no one would see the blush that was most definitely spreading on his cheeks.

It was just so typical that even such a confusing action from Tony warmed Steve's heart a little and gave him a little bit of hope. But then Tony was gone.

But the hope was there, and as it usually happened with Steve, the hope grew into an instinct to act.

"Sorry," he said to his friends, "I have to go. I have... a sparring session."

 

He walked quickly and took Tony over by the Avengers Hall. It was not hard, Tony was walking slowly, his hands in his pockets.

"Iron Man, wait!" Steve called after him.

Tony turned around. Smiled at Steve.

"Hey, Cap," he said. "What's up?"

But Steve, instead of answering, put his hands into his pockets and dropped his gaze. Why again had he run after Tony Stark?

After a really long second or two, he looked at Tony and said: "I..."

 

 

 

   So Steve'd come after him and was now acting incredibly weird.

"Ok," Tony said, "I have a lot of work to do, in my lab, trying to work out some really tricky inverse power coefficients, for my new circuit upgrades. So..." He hoped whatever berating speech Cap had in store for him would be shorter now that Tony implied he was super busy.

Steve's face got serious, unhappy even, like when he'd stopped laughing back at the club.

"Why do you ha... dislike me so much?" Steve finally said, looking at Tony with a sort of challenge in his eyes.

But Tony couldn't say I don't, he couldn't say, actually, I like you a lot. It was just not in his genetic makeup. So he said: "Because you're annoyingly perfect, I thought we established that." He smiled at Steve, trying to lighten the mood.

"I don't think that's it," Steve said, still looking at Tony penetratingly. "I think you think you're better than me."

Those words immediately erased the smile from Tony's face. Of all the... "No," he shook his head. " _You_ think you're better than me. With your bulging muscles and always doing the right thing and all the girls like you and they never slap you."

Now Steve shook his head. "You think you're better than everyone because you're a genius. And rich and handsome, you constantly rub it in everyone's faces. Throwing phrases around like inverse power coefficients to make people feel bad for not being as smart as you."

Tony was getting angry. Cap did _not_ just imply that he was a conceited nerd.

"You condescend to people," Tony said. "Always telling them how to do stuff better, always so annoyingly perfect." Tony said those last two words slowly, looking straight into Cap's eyes, because he knew how much Cap hated them.

Steve's hands were balled into fists at his sides. He took one step toward Tony, then another. Tony's gauntlet was ready to blast Cap's balls off if he tried anything funny like punching him.

"And you," Cap said in a gruff voice, so close Tony could feel gusts of his warm breath on his face, "can only make friends with robots because they can never disobey you, or God forbid criticize you."

That was it! Tony was mad as hell! Badmouth his tech, badmouth his hair, but be Captain freaking America and badmouth his ability to make friends _and_ take criticism, and it's on!

Tony came an inch nearer, that was the final inch before his and Steve's faces where barely half an inch apart. Cap's big blue eyes sure looked big and blue this up close.

"And you," Tony said, in barely a whisper, "couldn't even befriend a robot, Mr. Perfect."

Cap gasped softly. Tony then realized his hand was grasping Cap's bicep. They looked at each other wide-eyed, breathing shallowly. Then Cap dipped his head just a little and brushed Tony's lips with his lips, slowly, gently.

Tony was outraged. So he captured Steve's lip between his own and sucked lightly on it. Steve exhaled in surprise and brought his hands up to the back of Tony's neck, which made Tony wrap his hands around Steve's waist. And then they were kissing like two people who had been banned from it their whole lives and were now adamant to make up for the lost time.

An eternity in heaven later, Tony's chest started hurting in a not-good way and he pulled back, somewhat violently. He breathed heavily, while Steve looked at him with a bit of a petulant pout on his red lips. It was a very cute look.

When Tony's breathing normalized, he said to now somewhat shy-looking Cap, "Good fight. A little heavy on name-calling but the result more than made up for it." Tony regretted his stupid genius over-analysing brain more than ever before.

"I wouldn't mind a repeat," Steve said, running his fingers through his hair.

Tony took in Steve's dishevelled look, his red mouth and brilliant eyes, and could see himself suffering a lot of pain and ignominy for some more of that.

He reached for Steve's waist where some skin was showing because Tony'd pushed up his t-shirt a little in the heat of the moment. He pulled it down, and said "Name the place and time, I'll be there." And just so everything was clear, he gave Steve a small kiss on the lips. Steve's eyes were still closed when he stepped back. Tony thought, so this is how Tony Stark goes down, unsure what his stupid over-analysing brain meant by it.

Steve opened his eyes, grinned and said "How about this evening? Club A, an actual date."

Tony decided not to dwell on the fact that Captain America just invited him to hang. Not to dwell on the fact that Steve Rogers, the guy he'd pined for for months had just kissed his lips off and was now asking him on a date. And not to dwell on the feeling in his gut that was telling him he'd messed up monumentally over the past indefinite amount of time, because it was now evident that Steve had the hots for him and had had the hots for him for some time wherein Tony pined and possibly Steve pined, which meant they both pined instead of just kissing each others' faces off.

"A date, and some dancing," Tony said simply, smiling in what he hoped was a promising way.

"I'll come pick you up at eight," Steve said, then took a step forward and brought Tony's hand to his lips, a pink blush spread on his cheeks as he brushed his lips over the back of it.

Tony breathed heavily. "Okay," he managed to croak out, hoping his poor heart would make it for a few hours more.

Something told him it'd be worth it.

 

 -The End-

 

**Author's Note:**

> The title is from a Right Said Fred song. For those of you who know the song and now have an earworm, ha-ha.;)


End file.
